Doug you can't avoid the auto SQL backup. It will backup to either the current SQL Data folder location or Backup location which is in the registry. You can run this T-SQL on SQL 2014 server. It will create a BAK file in 1 of these 2 places:
EXECUTE [master].dbo.xp_instance_regread N'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE', N'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\MSSQLServer', N'DefaultData'
EXECUTE [master].dbo.xp_instance_regread N'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE', N'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\MSSQLServer', N'BackupDirectory'
For me it kept backing up to the DATA directory. It takes that BAK file, copies it up to the 2017 SQL DATA directory, and RESTOREs it. For one client, I also had trouble making it complete the backup within 30 minute timeout period . But setting backup compression cut the time in half and size by more than half. Xlnt feature and recommend this regardless:
` EXEC sp_configure 'backup compression default', 1 ; `
` RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE ; `
` GO `